The Problem with Evangelical Sola Scriptura

I live in an ecclesial world that rightly touts the Reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone!). I have grown up in this tradition (after my early years in a tradition that held to Scriptura et Magisterium). A lot of ink and spiritual sweat has been spilled over clarifying the fact that for the believer in Jesus Christ, the Scriptures alone as breathed out by God are the final authority for faith and practice (I sometimes refer to that as Scriptura Ultima). As I understand it, this doctrine doesn't snub the fact that truth can be presented via common grace in other earthly texts. And insomuch as they accord with the Sacred Writ, they are true statements. The Scriptures are the final arbiter of all other writings.

Not too many card-carrying evangelical Christians have a hard time disagreeing w/ the above understated formulation. Nevertheless, in the day-to-day life of the Church, I sense perhaps an all too often tendency to take Scriptura Ultima in a literal chronological sense. That is, we read and are heavily influenced by the voices, authorities, and texts of our culture (NY Times, Bono, Oprah, the Academy...you name it) first. Then (!), we run the noise through our evango-high def sola scriptura. No doubt, this isn't as mechanical as I'm making it to sound. I am asking: is our reality that we literally sometimes listen to the Word of God last (or finally, ultimately)?

I guess I am proposing a practical and daily return (yea, application) to the Scriptures not just as our final court of appeal but as our first consideration.
The problem with evangelical sola scriptura in the life of the church is that it often makes the Bible the last consideration (almost like throwing a bone at God). Maybe I'm proposing that embedded in this great historic doctrine is Scriptura Principium. The definition would then be that Scripture is our first and final authority in faith and practice. This allows for common grace and culture "conversations" in between, but it properly keeps the front and back doors of the Gospel well-protected.
Thoughts?

100 Cupboards Trilogy

Both my son and I are enjoying and heavily entrenched in the first of the 100 Cupboards trilogy by author N.D. Wilson. N.D. (Nate) is said that his goal is to "bring fantasy to America". To be honest, having just previously finished two back-to-back classics (The Last Battle and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), this first has been harder to close each night. That is not at all to deprecate C.S. Lewis. That's just saying how good N.D. Wilson already is as an emerging author.

Check out the trailer below.

Trailer for "The 100 Cupboards" Trilogy - by N.D. Wilson from Yitz Brilliant on Vimeo.

Malcom Gladwell on Work

I am really enjoying reading The New Yorker author, Malcom Gladwell in his recent book Outliers: The Story of Success. I would like to review this book, but I'm still processing it as Gladwell masterfully weaves stories with deductions on success. I would call this book a psycho/socio-dissection of success.

Those three things--autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward--are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether our work fulfills us. If I offered you a choice b/t being an architect for $75K a year and working in a tollbooth every day for the rest of your life for $100k a year, which would you take? I'm guessing the former, because there is complexity, autonomy, and a relationship b/t effort and reward in doing creative work, and that's worth more to most of us than money.
Work that fulfills those three criteria is meaningful.... Bill Gates had that same [ecstatic] feeling when he first sat down at the keyboard at Lakeside. And the Beatles didn't recoil in horror when they were told they had to play eight hours a night, seven days a week. Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.

Life is Vapor... Get a Tatoo!

One of the main objections to getting a tattoo that is apparent to all is that it's with you to stay. Duh.
But could we not take on a more "eternal" perspective, folks? Since life is a vapor, maybe getting a tattoo doesn't seem as dastardly a move (unless it makes you look really dastardly). That is, if our lives are just a blip on the radar of eternity, then so is that tattoo. So... ink away!
Alright, I'm kidding. This is forcing St. James and Epicureus to be ideological compadres they were never meant to be.=+)
btw, that's not my arm.

Praying for Others: An Idea

One of the blessings of being transient is the sheer number of friends that you build up over time. One of the downsides of that is that you can lose touch with them. The ones who are really on top of it, keep their address books current and send you annual Christmas cards.
My parents had a post-holiday custom that my family is trying to implement. I think it's really easy and practical.
Instead of stashing those Christmas cards somewhere or throwing them away w/ a twinge of guilt, try something more "guilt-free": Every night at dinner (or any meal), take one card a night and pray for that family even if you may not know them really well. Pray for marriages, children to come to faith in Jesus, deeper Kingdom commitment and whatever else. Then throw the card away.

Nicolas Augusto Pareja- February 5, 2006

One of the most formative life experiences happened four years ago. It was a tough (second) pregnancy for my wife. It was also a "planned" pregnancy. We were both pumped. All of her pregnancy's have been high risk. It's amazing that the effects of the Fall and beauty of creation collide in this 9 month journey for women.
At about 8 weeks, it was discovered that Rachel had a tumor in her abdominal area that could potentially compromise the life of our second child. At the 13 week mark, she went in for major surgery that successfully removed a tumor the size of a grapefruit off of (and including) her tube w/out threatening the life of our child. The OB doc described a moment during the surgery in which he waved "hi" to the expected second-born. Stunning. Rachel is on bed rest for 6 weeks; baby is growing and kicking like crazy!

On Friday night, February 3 (30 weeks), Rachel was feeling unusually uncomfortable b/c she had been second-guessing herself if she had felt the baby move in recent days and hours. I remember sleeping on the couch that night-- concerned and praying but not being prepared for what was coming. Saturday, Feb 4th, I had to work until about 2pm. However, the concern was mounting. I worked begrudingly (we ran a storage facility where we lived on-site; very advantageous on many fronts), and then I just had to leave. We drove to the hospital w/ Haddon (2 at the time). We were ushered in right away for an ultrasound. I had to hang w/ the little dude while Rachel had to endure the next moments of the ultrasound. The sonographer tried and tried to find a hearbeat-- nothing. It was confirmed by the attending Ob/Gyn that Nicolas had met his end, and then I was ushered in to the presence of my shattered Rachel. I fell apart, and the next hours were spent in shock and numbness; waves of sobbing and silence. Our good friends, Phil & Julianna came and got Haddon. The next persons on the scene was my very busy pastor and his wife, Dave & Claudia, who comforted us tenderly.

The irony of grief is that there is always a celebration going on somewhere nearby. The blighted city of Detroit was on the cusp of hosting the Super Bowl. On "Super" Bowl Sunday, February 5, 2006, Rachel was induced for a delivery scheduled at 8am. As God's people rose for worship that day, we had entered a different kind of worship "experience." Instead of hearing the typical cries and struggle for breathing on earth for the first time, we heard nothing. It was like we were shot through, and knew for a fact that our Nicolas indeed perished. The cries that filled the room at this birth were only ours. We got to hold our son who we named after my father's great names (he's Augusto Nicolas Pareja). Thankfully, my dad was able to come later on and hold our dear Nicolas.

I could go on and on about grief, family, the body of Jesus, faith, etc. Maybe another time. In preparation for the burial of NAP, I penned the following dirge:

The Broken Arrow

Dirge for Nicolas Augusto Pareja

Ps 127:4-5; Prov 13:12; Lam 3:13; Job 1:20; 6:4; Ps 119:68

Two warriors envisioned a quiver of children,

Of pointed arrows shot in obscure night.

Poised for alarm and prepared to fight,

They longed for the time when bows bent.

Overjoyed were they by the Maker’s first arrow

Given to them across the Big River.

Desire blazed to again fill the quiver,

But not with grief that would bring them so low.

Marked was the quiver for the second of shots,

To fill the desired place.

Yet outside of time and space,

The Great Giver set in motion his eternal tho’ts.

To their racking woe, the Maker snuffed out

The life of their second born son.

“A dream?,” they tho’t—no, they were undone

Holding the broken arrow they would no longer tout.

The wounds of divine severity— though rarely pleasant—

Are lathered in the balm of God’s mercy.

Good Giver of life, we bow the knee

In adoration of your wisdom and right to reclaim our infant.

Notes on the Dirge

The Scriptures above have been formative in our “coping” w/ our trial. They also contain images or themes upon which the poem is written. Figure the meter out for yourself. It is simple.

Stanza 1- Ps 127:4-5 is key to understanding these initial metaphors. “Time when bows bent” can be interpreted elastically. I would understand this to be the process of raising children and preparing them for the break from dependence upon Christian parents to the event(s) that would extend the parents’ influence in this world, e.g., leaving home for college, work, marriage, etc.

Stanza 2- “first arrow” refers to W. Haddon Pareja; The “Big River” is simply a translation of the Rio Grande, the river separating the US and Mexican border. We lived in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico beyond the Rio Grande.

Stanza 3- Stylistically and rhythmically, this is the weakest verse. However, it is a hinge upon which the whole poem turns; this is obvious.

Stanza 4- “the broken arrow” now represents the arrow that God had originally given us. This motif should not be taken as overtures of American Indian themes.

Stanza 5- This last verse is really meant to bring together the moral or lesson, and as it is obvious, the conclusion is the defining surrender.

Being a Disciple of Jesus and your Money

Had the opportunity to teach again at HTC. This time from the text assigned to me for our stewardship series: Matthew 6:19-34.
Audio here.
Video here (be warned: it comes in five parts; better for the attention"ly" challenged=+)